Dan Armstrong

Dan Armstrong
Born	Dan Kent Armstrong October 7, 1934(1934-10-07) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died	June 8, 2004(2004-06-08) (aged 69) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Known for	Session musician, luthier

Dan Armstrong was a guitarist, luthier, and session musician.

Biography

Dan Armstrong Ampeg era "see-through" guitar, in the Phoenix Musical Instrument Museum.

Dan Kent Armstrong was born on October 7, 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started playing the guitar at age 11, and moved to New York in the early 1960s in order to work as a studio musician and guitar repairman. In 1965 he opened his own guitar repair shop, 'Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service', on West 48th Street.^[1] The building was razed in 1968 to make room for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Armstrong relocated his shop, renamed 'Dan Armstrong Guitars,' to Laguardia Place in Greenwich Village.

In 1968 the Ampeg Company of Linden, New Jersey hired Armstrong as a consultant to improve their Grammer line of guitars. He designed a new line of guitars and basses that were constructed of clear plexiglass. The Dan Armstrong line of guitars also became renowned for their excellent electronics^{[citation needed]}, and interchangeable pickups designed by Bill Lawrence who shared the Greenwich Village shop with Armstrong, and eventually took it over when he moved back to London. The guitars also had long sustain caused by the solid plexiglass body. The latter however made the guitars also quite heavy (around 10 lbs). Recently, the guitars have regained popularity with Dave Grohl utilizing the 1990s reissue series during performances (playing it almost solely between early 2002 until end of 2003)^[2] and music videos (for the songs "All My Life" and the second video version of "Times Like These")^{[citation needed]}. The guitars and the bass were used also in the music video for Queens of the Stone Age's "Sick Sick Sick". A second reissue of the Dan Armstrong guitar was launched in 2006 containing many upgrades that are widely believed to actually improve upon the original design.

Armstrong moved to London in the early 1970s where he developed a new line of electric instruments, amplifiers and effects boxes. The Dan Armstrong London instruments were made of solid Honduran mahogany with sliding low impedance pickups, available as a 6 string guitar, short scale & long scale guitars. Armstrong also marketed a line of tube guitar and bass amplifiers, the first amps available with graphic equalization^{[citation needed]} and effects boxes, the Blue Clipper, Yellow Humper, Red Ranger, Purple Peaker, Green Ringer & Orange Squeezer.

In 1977 Armstrong and his wife, Vicki O'Casey, moved back to the United States, A licensing and manufacturing agreement was reached with Musitronics to re-release the effects boxes. Armstrong also developed a line of pickups for Schecter Guitar Research, a new amplifier for Fender. The couple returned to England, where they lived in Ashford, Kent, in the late 1990s, but again moved back to America after several years. After a prolonged illness, Armstrong died in Los Angeles on June 8, 2004.^[1]

Armstrong effects boxes continue to be made under licence from his son, Kent Armstrong, who is also a maker of guitar pick-ups.

List of notable artists who have used Armstrong guitars

• Jack Bruce of Cream
• Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath
• Cyril Jordan of Flamin Groovies
• Randy California of Spirit
• John Davis of Superdrag
• Greg Ginn of Black Flag
• Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters
• John Kay of Steppenwolf
• Paul McCartney of The Beatles (owns the only left-handed Dan Armstrong guitar)
• Randy Rhoads of Quiet Riot (owned by Kevin DuBrow)
• Ron Wood of Faces and The Rolling Stones
• Steve Miller of The Steve Miller Band
• Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
• Joe Perry of Aerosmith
• Rick Price of The Georgia Satellites
• Lou Reed of Velvet Underground, during solo period 1974-1976
• Nile Rodgers of Chic
• Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones
• Rick Richards of The Georgia Satellites
• Earl Slick
• Matthew Bellamy of Muse, only in the Supermassive Black Hole music video
• Leslie West of Mountain
• Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones
• Scott Hill, Bob Balch and Brad Davis of Fu Manchu
• George Kooymans of Golden Earring
• Brent Hinds of Mastodon
• Bill Kelliher of Mastodon
• Justin Hawkins of The Darkness
• Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits^[3]

Bibliography

• Tony Bacon, The Ultimate Guitar Book, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
• Tony Bacon, Dave Burrluck, Paul Day, and Michael Wright, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, Thunder Bay Press, 2006.
• Gregg Hopkins and Bill Moore, Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound, Milwaukee, Hal Leonard, 1999.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Dan Armstrong - The Man and His Guitars
2. ^ Place in Greenwich Village. He is known for his contributions to the Foo Fighters Blackbox Archive
3. ^ (in English) The Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor – Did Mark Knopfler really use it?. Germany: Mark Knopfler Guitar. 2008-10-09. http://www.mk-guitar.com/blog/2008/10/09/the-dan-armstrong-orange-squeezer-compressor-did-mark-knopfler-really-use-it/. Retrieved 2010-02-03. 

External links

• Media related to Dan Armstrong at Wikimedia Commons

Persondata
Name	Armstrong, Dan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 7, 1934
Place of birth	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date of death	June 8, 2004
Place of death	Los Angeles, California